


Raspberry Jell-O

by sturmundfrei (madeoutoflight)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Camp Jupiter, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Nico & Reyna Friendship, Post-Canon, Reyna is the mom friend, let Nico eat 2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:08:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madeoutoflight/pseuds/sturmundfrei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico is staying at Camp Jupiter and Reyna will make sure he eats, damn it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raspberry Jell-O

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this picture](http://i.imgur.com/AqZrdVM.png), found [here](http://9gag.com/gag/aL2pGnM?ref=fbp). I was challenged to write about one of those pictures by the lovely [greekdemigod](http://archiveofourown.org/users/greekdemigod/profile), who is the point to my pencil and lives the Reynico brotp appreciation life alongside me. Here you go, love.

Reyna enters the Temple of Pluto on the hill with her dogs on her heels. She blinks against the darkness beneath the Corinthian columns, then notices a small lantern at the far end of the wide space. Lying in its pool of light, at the foot of a colossal statue of his father, is Nico. His arms are propped behind his head and he’s using what appears to be a 3D shadow for a mattress. Upon Reyna’s approach, the mattress shifts and barks.

“Mrs. O’Leary,” Nico warns. The mattress settles down beneath him, one eye trained on Reyna. She would be slightly more intimidated if the eye didn’t seem to say _are you going to play fetch with me?_ Instead of cowering, she sits down beside the lantern on the edge of the pedestal and gives Nico a stern look.

“We missed you at dinner. I had the Lares clear a space for you at the Senate’s table. Why weren’t you there?”

Nico shrugs, which looks a bit funny considering his arms are still behind his head. “Not hungry. And not really interested in sitting at the Senate’s table, either.”

“Your rank gives you a right to that spot, but…” Reyna frowns. “I can arrange for you to sit with the Fifth Cohort. _If_ you promise you’ll come to dinner next time.”

“What does it matter?” Nico doesn’t even look at her. He just stares past the black marble statue, past the scepter and the helmet and the bushy beard, up at the shadowy ceiling as if it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever laid eyes on. “I can grab my own food if I get hungry.”

“You mean _when_ you get hungry,” Reyna corrects him. When Nico doesn’t respond, she rolls her eyes and snips her fingers. Argentum speeds off, his metal nails scratching on the cold temple floor. Mrs. O’Leary barks like she’s getting ready to give chase, but Nico pokes her with a skinny elbow and she obediently licks his hair instead.

Reyna watches without bothering to hide the concern on her face. She’s starting to think that this expression will be etched into her skin and she’ll still be sporting this exact look of intense worry when they lower her into her grave one day. All because of Nico. She doesn’t care, though. As long as he lets her make that face, she doesn’t care.

Her loyal silver greyhound returns with a small picnic basket swinging in his mouth. Nico sits up as Reyna sets it on the floor. He scratches his head and arches an eyebrow.

“What’s that?”

“Your dinner.” Reyna unpacks a golden plate, a matching travel mug, a carefully wrapped cheeseburger, a cardboard container filled with French fries, a plastic lunch box, and a Jell-O cup. She hands Nico a fork and a spoon before opening the lunch box to show him the mixed salad inside. He just glares at her.

“ _Dinner_? Really?”

“You don’t expect me to sit around while you starve yourself, do you?” She sounds almost offended.

“This is ridiculous,” Nico snaps and narrows his eyes. It’s a dangerous look, a hard glint that says _I can and will crack the earth if I have to_ , or—worse— _I can and will leave again if I have to_. “I don’t need you to mother me.”

“I’m not being your mother,” Reyna says, balancing her tone between calm and sharp. “I’m being your friend. And you can pretend all you want, but I _know_ you need a friend.”

They stare at each other, Nico’s face half obscured by the dark mess of his hair, the anger clearly visible in the hardened lines around his mouth. Reyna can feel the energy radiating from him, trembling in the air—not the hot crackle of electricity, like Jason’s power, but rather something cold, the burn of spreading frost. She focuses on her breathing, on meeting his gaze, and reminds herself that Nico would never hurt her.

He knows it, too, and slowly the anger drains from his features. He folds into himself, just a tangle of bony limbs and washed-out skin, sickly yellow in the faint glow of the lantern. Suddenly he looks fourteen years old—which he is, and always seems to forget. As the daughter of the war goddess, Reyna understands only too well. She remembers the battles, senses the scars. She knows what it’s like to feel as if you’re carrying the whole world on your shoulders.

“I just want to make sure you’re OK,” she says quietly, leaning in. She would’ve laid a hand on his shoulder, except Nico doesn’t like to be touched, so she settles for eye contact. “Your father may rule the Underworld, that doesn’t make you immortal. You need to eat.”

“I eat.” Nico scowls, but there’s no real irritation behind it. “You don’t have to be angry with me just because I’m not always hungry.”

“That’s what friends _do_ ,” she tells him. “Sometimes they get mad at you.”

Scoffing, Nico impales a piece of cucumber with his fork. “Some friends, then.”

“It’s only because they worry,” Reyna says. “Because they’re afraid that something’s not right, and they want you to know that. They want you to know that they care.”

Nico stares up at her, a lettuce leaf sticking out of his mouth as he stops mid-chew. A faint pink blush creeps up his neck and tinges his cheeks. He swallows, rubs his face—adding to the redness—and pushes the hair out of his eyes. A hesitant smile grows into something bright. The hardness around his mouth fades and when he finally speaks, all that comes out is, “Thank you for dinner.”

The tender moment is instantly gone, but Reyna can only smirk, and then she switches to Praetor mode. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes to collect the dishes, and I _will_ ask you if you’ve eaten everything. Aurum and Argentum will be present, so don’t even think about lying.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nico says meekly. The wedge of tomato between his teeth muffles his words a little, but he compensates with a formal salute. Reyna nods like a centurion accepting the sign of respect and gets up, brushing dust off the back of her jeans.

“Best send a cleaning crew as well,” she notes. “And some blankets, if you insist on sleeping here.”

Nico raises a hand. “Can I have another Jell-O cup, too? Raspberry flavor?”

“You…” Reyna begins gravely, “… definitely can.”

She smiles on her way down the hill, and when she returns half an hour later—a Jell-O cup balancing precariously on a stack of woolly blankets, no cleaning crew because it’s actually really late—all that’s left is a crumpled-up ball of burger wrapping tossed inside the lunch box. Nico is fast asleep, curled up against Mrs. O’Leary’s flank; his spoon is on the ground beside him, as if it had slipped out of his grasp while he drifted off. There’s a smear of Jell-O on his cheek.

_Fourteen years old_ , Reyna thinks, _and finally starting to act like it._ She drapes two blankets over him, thinks for a moment, adds a third, then tucks him in. He mumbles something, but doesn’t wake up. Reyna picks up the trash and leaves the raspberry Jell-O on the pedestal, right in the slightly less dusty spot where she sat earlier.

“Let’s see how embarrassed he is when he wakes up,” she whispers to the greyhounds, and exits the temple with her dogs on her heels.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my day, so please don't hesitate to leave one! :)


End file.
